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The Power of Your Soul Commitments

I don’t make commitments from my mind alone. I always check in with my soul.

Mind-only commitments lead to ego-commitments rather than soul-commitments. For instance, I’ve tried making a commitment to making a certain dollar figure per month or year. It just doesn’t work for me. Because I’m not really committed to it. And no amount of willpower or Millionaire Mind meditation tapes will get me there. My soul just doesn’t care about numbers.

What I do instead is try to listen very carefully to what my soul is already committed to, and then name it consciously. Own it. Say it out loud.

Being committed doesn’t mean that you demonstrate it perfectly 100% of the time.

I have a soul-level commitment to non-violence. And yet, I have a mind trained in manipulation, criticism, arguing, and scarcity consciousness. I have a head full of blame and a heart full of fear. I can be blunt. I’m far from the Gandhi-esque persona people probably picture when they hear “commitment to non-violence”. And yet I keep learning, keep trying, keep pushing to convert my hard edges to compassion and my fear-motivation to love. Because there is something deep inside me that wants peace, that wants a world where everyone is valued, and knows that it is possible. I believe in it. Naming that sometimes feels hypocritical, because I know with precision just how many ways I don’t live up to it. But in the end that doesn’t matter. I also know it’s there. It’s part of me.

Our soul-commitments are wired into us. We can feel them.

They are part of who we are, on this planet, in this lifetime. And if you pay attention to yourself, you can feel them when they click into place.

I have noticed that when I hit upon a soul-level commitment I often have a very emotional response. I can start crying, or feel very peaceful. Or sometimes I feel scared, if I’m not quite ready to own it yet. That’s OK.

When I think about peace and about how much I want the world to be a place where every child grows up knowing they are precious and is held in love as they discover the beauty of who they are and awaken to the Mystery of life–I cry.

When I think about how money and business is something I naturally gravitated to, that I’m good at, that comes easily to me and is fun, and is something that is just part of my wiring, I feel peaceful. It’s something I know and accept is part of who I am on this planet in this life. There is nothing good or bad about it–it’s just a truth that feels good to name.

When I think about showing up fully in my business, I feel scared. And yet, I sense that is the path I’m on. To show up fully in all areas of my life. Scary. But I can feel it is part of me.

Your soul-level commitments are things you are already doing.

You don’t need to discover them in order to do them. It’s more that you when you can consciously feel them and name them, then you’ll feel the peace that comes with really knowing who you are. And you will be able to align your consciousness with your commitment. That means harnessing all the power of your mind and directing it so you become a channel for your soul’s purpose. And what on Earth feels better than that?

Here is an example.

There is a commitment I’ve made to myself which goes something like this:

I will give myself everything I need.

What does this mean? It means that if I feel an inner urge to learn to paint, I will buy myself brushes and canvas. It means that if I identify something that is essential to my happiness, I will not deny it to myself. This is a conscious decision I made to re-parent myself. But I believe it echoes a soul-commitment I have to developing and expressing happiness. Happiness has been a continuous goal for me as long as I can remember. And I know if there is one thing I want to give the world it is the idea that happiness is something anyone, anywhere can attain.

The best way I’ve found to understand my soul-commitments is to really sit with myself.

Being willing to have a quiet one-on-one conversation with yourself is important to all kinds of things, but it is definitely essential to understanding your own soul.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that when something is nagging at me as a mystery that I can’t figure out logically, it can signify the presence of a soul-commitment. Questions like “Why am I still here?”, “Why did I start this business?”, “Why did I want to move here?”, “Why am I unwilling to let go of this?”. Look especially at situations that are uncomfortable, don’t meet your needs on a surface level, you complain a lot about, but you just won’t leave. Something in you is hanging on. It might be psychological and some kind of fear or scarcity is keeping you there and you really need to look at that. Or it might be a spiritual commitment that you aren’t quite aware of yet, and your soul is keeping you there until you fulfill that commitment. Only you know. Ask your own self, inside.

What if you are afraid of what your insides might say? What if it turns out you don’t have a purpose? What if you ask and nothing comes up?

That might happen at first. Our culture does not exactly encourage or train us in this kind of thing. But if the answer is fuzzy, keep at it. Keep asking, and more importantly, keep listening. Spiritual insights have a way of taking a very long time to come into focus sometimes, believe me.

But the asking is worth it. You do have a purpose.

You do have soul-commitments. We all do. And owning them and consciously committing to them is a delicious feeling of power and purpose.

Ask inside and see.

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Comments

Hello Emma, maybe it’s strange that I react 1,5 years late on a post, but I am reading through your posts, and I just want to tell you, that I am really, really inspired by your writing. Thanks! Simone Nijboer (Netherlands)